


pretty little gangsters

by seasonschange



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Asexual Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Minor Character Death, Platonic Romance, author biased towards lilith like woah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-25 11:09:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9817442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seasonschange/pseuds/seasonschange
Summary: "I dislike being touched, or stared at. I will kick your ass if you come anywhere near my personal zone—" Maya makes a wide sweeping gesture between them, "—and if I catch you calling me honey or baby, or anything of the sort, I'll phaselock your balls and shove them down your throat until you choke. Are we clear?"Axton carefully considers the neon blue pixie cut, the cute perky nose, the big guns and the even deadlier tattoos — and shrugs."Alright."





	

**Author's Note:**

> A thinguuu for [the most badass Maya I know](http://refrigeratorbucky.tumblr.com) ❤

* * *

Their friendship isn't exactly the spontaneous type.

"I dislike being touched, or stared at. I will kick your ass if you come anywhere near my personal zone—" Maya makes a wide sweeping gesture between them, "—and if I catch you calling me honey or baby, or anything of the sort, I'll phaselock your balls and shove them down your throat until you choke. Are we clear?"

Axton carefully considers the neon blue pixie cut, the cute perky nose, the big guns and the even deadlier tattoos — and shrugs.

"Alright."

Maya squints, measuring the man for any sign of deceit. When she finds none, she feels herself relax.

A fraction.

Axton gives her a goofy grin, an obvious effort to appear as non-threatening as possible, and carries on down the dusty road to Sanctuary.

Maya follows suit.

* * *

 

The first time he calls her inadvertently 'baby', Maya spins around mid-battle and throws a shiny globe of deadly power in Axton's direction.

The soldier narrowly avoids the attack, and instead one of his Dahl-issued turrets takes the brunt of it. What's left is a pile of steaming crumpled metal.

Axton is coughing hot air and dust where he rolled away to save his life. The bullets are still flying around them but Maya seems to barely care, glaring in his direction and making no other move.

Axton gulps, and hoists himself up.

"My bad. Sorry."

He even puts his hands up, perfectly aware that the Siren is the actual threat to his life right now, rather than the bandits.

"It just slipped?"

Maya's left arm is blazing menacingly again.

"For what it's worth, I'm well aware that you are a grown-ass individual, and uhhh, nobody's infant child or anything."

Axton can't swear it happened, but he's almost sure he saw Maya roll her eyes.

"Asshole!" She yells across the distance.

Axton catches the 'I warned you' tone and doesn't argue. He already thinks he's kind of an asshole, anyway.

* * *

 

Of all the Vault Hunters who've ended up joining their squad for various personal reasons, Maya is shocked the day she comes to the realization that she's leaning in favor of Axton's presence more often than not.

She admires the assassin they met on their way to Sanctuary, but she doesn't particularly enjoy his company. Zer0 usually keeps to himself to an almost preternatural level, and his few comments always come in the form of haikus that are either morbid or verging on demented. Or both.

 _"Killing people is fun. / I got you some wild berries, / they might be poison —_ followed by a creepy smirkingsymbol* floating before his helmet had been the early signs that she better keep her distances.

As for the teenager who's been trailing after them for the last few weeks now, it seems she's mistaking Axton for a father figure and would only talk to him, most of the time whining or chattering about stuff the Siren can barely comprehend. It's all about mechanics, Axton has assured her, so Maya doesn't care if they speak in their strange code. As long as Gaige doesn't get them killed and pulls her weight like everybody else, she's welcome to tag along, as far as Maya's concerned.

But that doesn't make her consider the teenage girl a friend. 

It's no wonder then that the Siren ends up trusting nobody but Axton to watch her six, and after he saved her life on a couple of (unlucky) occasions, she's even started to not only bear his presence, but find it  _reassuring_. Zer0 may be more skilled then Maya and Axton combined, but he's also shown an inclination for caring about his own safety above anyone else's on numerous occasions, so there's no way Maya's expecting anything from the taciturn assassin.

Gaige's recently damaged prosthetic can bear witness to that fact.

* * *

 

Under the pretext of being drunk out of his gourd, Axton drops on the log next to the Siren and drapes his arm around her shoulders in a grand, grotesque display. 

Maya smirks, and something tells Axton he's been made. Except that she doesn't move away as he'd been expecting, and actually shifts a little until she's leaning even more into him.

Axton kind of barely breathes for a while, or mostly until she looks up and wrinkles her nose.

"You stink of booze."

"And you smell damn good. We're a perfect match!"

Maya giggle-snorts, and quickly covers the sound behind the back of her palm. On the other side of the fire, Gaige is sitting on a knocked over container and she's obviously trying to reign in her urge to laugh, too.

As for Zer0, he's somewhere scouting the surrounding area to keep himself busy.

* * *

 

By the time the assassin's back from his scouting, he finds Gaige sleeping in a ball next to the fire, and Axton and Maya still sitting next to each other on the log, Axton's fingers playing with the tips of Maya's hair. 

The Siren doesn't pay any attention to it, talking and laughing with the other man.

Beneath his mask, Zer0's strangely shaped mouth slowly curves into a human smile. And his display turns on with a bright red flash that attracts the Siren's attention.

> **Aw**

Eyes darting to Axton to make sure he hasn't noticed, Maya's hand uncurls from Axton's and she manages to discreetly flip Zer0 off.

The reply she gets makes her roll her eyes.

> **AWWWWWWW**

* * *

 

How they found her is irrelevant.

What matters is how fast she can silence them before they can start spouting the crazy superstitions that cost her her childhood.

She trusts her team since they already know she's a Siren, but... you can never be too careful with the power of persuasion of the Order.

"Maya!" One of the fanatics is screaming while she's breaking another one's neck, blood splattering everywhere. "Come back to us, child!"

She notices Axton's frown, the hand holding his gun lowering in surprise instead of pulling the trigger.

Gaige and Zer0 are on the other side of the cliff finishing off the last of the bandits slash monks.

Maya doesn't wait for another round of patronizing sweet talk, pushing Axton out of her way with a furious groan.

She commands her tattoos flaring back to life with a single thought, and the screaming fanatic kneeling in front of her turns into a pile of bloody bones in a flash of purple light.

"Why..." Axton starts, and trails off. 

Maya turns around, on edge, teeth sunk into her lower lip. She glares at her companion.

Axton glares back.

"Did you  _know_ these guys?"

Maya feels uncharacteristically nervous as she shrugs, and holsters her gun. She makes to walk past Axton, planning to join the others, but he grabs her by the arm and keeps her close.

It's a testimony to their friendship that she doesn't knee him in the crotch for laying a hand on her. The reflex simply isn't there anymore where Axton's concerned.

"C'mon," he cajoles. "Don't be like this. Tell me."

* * *

 

Her backstory doesn't sound as tragic as it used to now that she's retelling it for the first time in her life, and doing a pretty poor job of it.

She talks about the Order of the Impending Storm in a clipped tone, and only mentions Brother Sophis' name once.

"He was my... handler, I guess. He'd been training me since a very young age."

"And where is he, now?" Axton asks, voice shaking with emotion, his free hand curling into a fist.

Maya recognizes the rage swirling inside the whiskey brown eyes. They're literally  _blazing_ with it.

"Dead."

The Siren averts her eyes, unable to hold the other man's gaze. She needs the past to remain where she'd left it, broken and bloodied on the cold stone floor where she used to sleep, safely behind closed gates.

She doesn't need her friend's sympathy, whatever form it might take. 

Axton clears his throat, drawing Maya's focus back on him. She stares at his chest, suddenly too drained to even stick her chin up again in defiance.

"Are... Are you gonna be okay?"

When Maya remains stubbornly silent, she catches movement from the corner of her eye.

Axton steps in for a hug, and this time, Maya pushes him back with enough force to send him stumbling back a couple of feet.

"Hey, back off! I don't need your big boy comfort talk, alright? I've dealt with this bullshit before! I've dealt with it _my whole life!"_

Axton sighs, and he manages to make Maya feel unexpectedly bad for snapping at the man.

"I know that," he says, voice low and gravely. And coming out a bit... funny. "I, uh. I'm the one who needs this, right now."

Maya frowns.

She looks up this time, and Axton's whole body language seems off. There's none of the usual swagger and defiance left in the man now looking at her with a sad, hopeful smile.

Then understanding dawns.

He's worried for her. He trusts that she's telling the truth and that she's fine, but her revelations must have shaken him worse than she thought.

When he looks at her, he sees the little girl held prisoner, up in the mountains, treated like a mindless weapon.

Lonely and scared.

And those thoughts are scaring  _him_. It's an irrational fear, she thinks. But it's damn real.

Maya's the one initiating the hug this time around, awkwardly wrapping her arms around the man that only slightly beats her in height. 

"Fuck, you're such a baby," she mutters before burying her face in Axton's neck, his short hairs tickling her temple.

Axton emits a short, barking sort of laugh and hugs her back, his arms tightening almost to the point where ribs start cracking.

"It's okay, baby."

She doesn't know if it's still a mockery or a term of endearment at this point as Axton begins to gently rock them together.

The blood of their slain enemies still staining their outfits mingles between them, sticky and uncomfortable. 

In the distance, they can hear Gaige's booming laughter, and the lonely screech of a rakk flying by.

And right up against her, Axton's frenzied heartbeat has gradually slowed down to a more measured, peaceful pace.

* * *

 

Axton lacks imagination in... well, every department, to be fair.

He's always flirted with the people he liked in the same, stereotypical douchey manner, backing off as soon as the other person told him to go fuck himself. And he's not about to change it anytime soon.

After a few months in Maya's company; in her confidences and her trust ever since they reached Sanctuary and met with the rest of the Vault Hunters, it comes as no surprise to him when he looks at her and doesn't see the lady with the scary tattoos anymore.

That was the strange Maya he'd only met a few days ago.

The Maya he often finds himself staring at lately is the strong but compassionate woman he would give his life to keep safe. From Hyperion, from the Order, and from any other motherfucker who thinks they can use her again.

The Maya he's fallen in love with knows how to shoot with a gun, but also how to dance in the moonlight after a couple of drinks, making up the steps as she went, eyes sparkling with mischief, dragging everyone else along with her, despite their protests.

The Maya that lately occupies his every thought is the beautiful woman he wants to kiss. And hold in his arms. And then kiss some more. 

So the day it occurs to him that yes, he's going to walk up to the most powerful Siren he's ever seen (counting Lilith) and kiss her, and wait for her to either encourage him or tell him to go fuck himself — he does just that.

In the middle of a gun fight.

"Hey, baby," he begins, all charm and confidence, and they've been calling each other cute and cuddly names for a while now, mostly as a joke, and sometimes not, so Axton doesn't worry as much as he used to. "How about we—"

It shouldn't have come as a surprise, and deep down, Axton actually expected this outcome.

It still knocks the wind out of him when he leans forward with every intention of kissing Maya — and gets decked instead.

* * *

 

Maya dabs the big cut splitting Axton's forehead with alcohol, and enjoys the way the man hisses through clenched teeth.

"Does it hurt?" She asks, not even trying to conceal her vengeful glee.

Axton nods, eyes tightly closed.

"That'll teach you to try sneaking up on me. And  _kissing_ me," she insists on the word 'kissing' by pressing the swab of cotton a little harder into Axton's wound. "What kind of an idiot  _are you?"_

"The kind that fancies you?" Axton groans pitifully. "So much that it's making him stupid?"

"You mean, more than usual?"

Axton attempts to laugh, but he can only do it by moving his entire face, and the movements pull on the skin of his forehead and turn the laugh into another pained hiss.

Once he's settled down, Maya tosses the dirty swab and leans over the bed where Axton's resting.

Axton must have felt her move, because he finally opens his eyes, and blinks stupidly at her for a moment.

"Next time you try, do it when our lives aren't in danger."

Then she leans down to kiss his cheek.

When Maya leaves the room, Axton is grinning like a psycho who just found his very first grenade.

* * *

 

"She's dead," Roland's grim statement echoes inside the sterile Control Core. "Jack just lost his only way of awakening the Warrior."

He crouches, hand hovering above Angel's lifeless body. Next to him, Lilith is tapping on her ECHO device, addressing a message to the rest of the team.

Behind them, Maya is holding Axton up, his arm round her shoulder for support. There's blood flowing where a bone in his leg was broken, and the commando can barely take a step on his own without keeling from the pain of his wound. As for Maya, she's gotten a few new scratches here and there, but nothing she can label as life-threatening.

Far behind them, an uncharacteristically solicitous Zer0 is carrying an unconscious Gaige outside to find one of Brick's buzzards, and send her back to Sanctuary. Their time together has changed them all, Axton muses as he grits his teeth. In more ways than one.

"We should get you to a doctor, too," Maya carefully offers.

Axton declines with a shake of his head and a stubborn clench of his jaw.

"I need to see this to the end. I feel like... we owe it to her. Or s'mthing."

Maya simply nods.

* * *

 

They approach the dead girl slowly, Maya with a distrusting frown; Axton with an openly distraught expression.

"She was just a child... and we murdered her," he whispers, careful not to be overheard by the two others, now in a strained conversation over their next plan.

A groan escapes him when his leg pulses with another painful throb.

Maya is about to echo the same sentiment, seeing more of herself in Angel than she ever expected to after finding out her identity, and what Jack has been putting her through all these years. But the sudden gunshot cracking through the still air, and the pungent smell of gunpowder accompanying the sound make her snap her head back in the direction of the Core.

"ROLAND!" Lilith's strangled shout pierces their eardrums.

Axton slips from Maya's slackened grasp and falls to his knees with a loud, heavy groan. The pain radiates up his leg like lightening, from the tip of his toes to the back of his skull.

The pain quickly subsides by waves, and soon he's able to notice that Maya now stands right in front of him, in what Axton slowly realizes is a defensive stance.

On the other side, Axton makes out Roland's body lying right next to Angel's, a gaping hole in his chest. And behind him stands Handsome Jack in all his sinister glory.

"You bastard!" Lilith screams and lunges at him, fiery wings of power flaring at her back. "I'm gonna—"

Jack punches something into her throat, and Lilith crumples to the floor like a discarded puppet. 

Maya shudders, and Axton can almost feel her shock, and her sudden terror communicate through him.

They are fucking exhausted after hours of trying to survive every single of Jack's assaults, and there's no escaping him now. Not in their current state.

They are fucked.

"Language," Jack teases, but his eyes are gleaming menacingly. 

He's not fooling around. Not this time.

"Maya," Axton tries to get the Siren to move, pushes her legs in the direction of the exit, but Maya refuses to budge. "Please, you gotta run!"

"See," Jack is still rambling, stepping over Roland's body. "I'mma show you just how much you have to lose — and I got the most powerful Siren on the planet to do it with."

As he enunciates like a patient teacher to a bunch of difficult students, Jack does something that makes all the alarms go off inside Axton's head, even as his vision slowly blackens and blurs from the blood loss.

Jack kicks Lilith to the side, and keeps walking in their direction instead.

"And by that, I mean you, of course. You guys didn't possibly think I'd take _that_ one," He gestures with his thumb to the place where Lilith's moaning in pain, a metal collar digging into her throat and restraining her powers.

Jack laughs, throwing a glance at Lilith.

"Nahhhh. You're history, baby. Sorry to crush your dreams of glory."

Above him, Maya's muscles are tensing up, ready not to flee but to fight.

 _No! Run! Save yourself!_ Is what Axton wishes he still had the strength to yell.

But he's tired. He's so. Goddamn. Tired. 

 _I love you,_  he thinks, half delirious. _I'm sorry I never got to tell you._

"And hello... Maya."

"Hello, Jackass," Maya shoots back, no trace of hesitation. "Fair warning: you won't enjoy this."

* * *

 

There is a blast of purple and blue light as Maya leaps and attacks.

A moment later, she's screaming, another of Jack's devices tightening around her throat and sapping all her energy in the blink of an eye.

"N-no..."

A hand grabs her by this strange collar and pulls her towards the center of the Core. Jack's dragging her like a dog brought to heel.

When Maya struggles, he pulls harder, and she has to give up in order to remain upright and avoid suffocating in his vicious grip.

"Lilith, kill the Vault Hunter!" Jack orders, gesturing towards the barely conscious commando still struggling to get up despite his wounds. "Maya and I got a date with the Warrior, and I'd hate to be late."

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't beta'd since it's _for_ the beta, so I apologize for all the... lame shit.
> 
> * **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**


End file.
